Abstract
This paper explores the dynamics of repression and resistance within the Colombian education system through exploring human rights violations against educators. Drawing on the findings of several fieldwork visits carried out since 2005 across Colombia, the paper focuses on the darker side of the education/conflict relationship, demonstrating through a series of cases the complex way education systems and education actors get caught up in the Colombian civil war and the national and transnational catalysts for the human rights violations that occur. In doing so, the paper also argues for a more interdisciplinary and critical approach to education and conflict that recognises the transnational drivers of conflicts in education and beyond.
Notes
1. Partial funding for these visits was, at different times, provided by the University of Amsterdam, Education International, and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
2. There are short and medium term practical measures to address the violence against educators such as allowing threatened teachers to move to different parts of the country, providing them with human rights training and awareness, and providing them with armed bodyguards and protection. I have written about this elsewhere (Novelli Citation2009b). However, none of these measures detract from the crucial need to modify the behaviour of state and para‐state forces.